WASHINGTON, Feb 17 President Barack Obama
vigorously defended his $787 billion stimulus on Wednesday,
insisting it rescued Americans from the worst of the economic
calamity and ripping Republican critics who called it a waste.

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden launched a sweeping
effort to convince skeptical Americans that the stimulus has
been beneficial on the one-year anniversary of a plan that was
pushed through the U.S. Congress by Democratic majorities.

Obama, in a White House speech, said he believed the
stimulus will save or create 1.5 million jobs in 2010 after
saving or creating as many as 2 million jobs thus far.

His point was to show that the stimulus, while admittedly
unpopular, had the effect of keeping the U.S. economy from
plunging into a second Great Depression.

"Our work is far from over but we have rescued this economy
from the worst of this crisis," he said.

As Obama spoke, many administration officials were fanning
out across the country this week to promote projects that have
been funded by the stimulus to show Americans its results.

For example, the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded
$1.5 billion on Wednesday in stimulus grants to local and state
governments to back 51 transportation projects.

The White House hoped that once Americans in their towns
and cities saw the results of the stimulus, they would realize
it has helped.

Obama has much work to do to convince Americans who are
still struggling to find work amid a 9.7 percent jobless rate.

A CBS News/New York Times poll last week found that only 6
percent of Americans believed the package had created jobs.
Another poll by CNN/Opinion Research Corporation showed a
majority opposed the stimulus program.

And the price tag of the stimulus has gone up. The
Congressional Budget Office estimates that when all is said and
done, the package will end up costing $862 billion because
unemployment compensation has been costlier than expected.

ELECTION YEAR PRESSURE

All this comes as Obama and his Democrats face pressure to
show results in an election year in which their large
majorities in Congress could be at risk.

Republicans eager to score political points emailed out to
reporters the original administration estimates from a year ago
that showed the U.S. jobless rate would only rise to 8 percent
under the stimulus.

"In the first year of the trillion-dollar stimulus,
Americans have lost millions of jobs, the unemployment rate
continues to hover near 10 percent, the deficit continues to
soar and we're inundated with stories of waste, fraud and
abuse," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

"This was not the plan Americans asked for or the results
they were promised," he said.

Anger and frustration over high government spending and
deficits have been leading causes of a wave of public
discontent with Washington, and Republicans sought to ride the
current.

"One year later, we see plainly that the stimulus was not a
well-thought-out plan," 2008 Republican vice presidential
candidate Sarah Palin said on Facebook. "It hasn't revived our
economy; instead the debt-ridden package will prove to be a
drag on our economy."

Obama used a portion of his speech to accuse Republicans of
hypocrisy, saying they have enjoyed its benefits even as they
criticized the plan.

"There are those, let's face it, across the aisle who have
tried to score political points by attacking what we did, even
as many of them show up at ribbon-cutting ceremonies for
projects in their districts," Obama said.

He said he recognized that many Americans are not
benefiting from the stimulus.

"Millions more are struggling to make ends meet. So it
doesn't yet feel like much of a recovery. And I understand
that. It's why we're going to continue to do everything in our
power to turn this economy around," Obama said.

With Congress now working on a multibillion-dollar jobs
bill, Obama warned of the possibility this year of layoffs by
state governments as funding from the stimulus runs out.

Reuters is the news and media division of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Learn more about Thomson Reuters products: